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In Oster, a town home to around 5,000 people in an area in Chernihiv Oblast, in north-eastern Ukraine, daily life ambles along. But, outside the centre, in fields that stretch to the horizon, a hidden danger lurks.
Below the fertile earth where grain – the lifeblood of Ukraine’s economy – grows, landmines and other unexploded ordnance such as rockets, shells, and cluster bombs litter the landscape. The hidden weapons have claimed the lives of hundreds, from farmers ploughing their land to children out playing, and injured many more.
The Kremlin’s forces occupied vast swathes of Chernihiv Oblast for several weeks at the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion on 24 February 2022. Its troops attempted to capture Chernihiv city, some 150km north-east of Kyiv, before Ukraine pushed them back.
Kyiv’s military now faces another battle in the liberated land across Chernihiv Oblast – to clear a significant amount of landmines that Russia left behind.
The international de-mining organisation, HALO, estimates that up to two million landmines may have been laid across Ukraine since February 2022, the explosive devices set up as traps to injure and kill anyone who unwittingly triggers them.
‘Mainly It’s Mines of Soviet Production’
A 20-minute drive outside Oster, in an area that cannot be named for security reasons, five men stand in a field in military fatigue and protective clothing, including face visors and flak jackets.
They are positioned about 20m apart, in a straight line, each clutching a sophisticated metal detector that hovers over the ground, the device gently nudging thick blades of grass and yellow daisies.
The group moves forward, centimetres at a time, eyes scanning the earth for danger; ears tuned for any tell-tale bleep from the detector to indicate a mine or other unexploded ordnance.
The men working here in May – in a field, near a motorway, cordoned off with a sign featuring a skull and crossbones warning “Danger. Mines!” – are sappers of the 756 brigade, one of many units busy clearing landmines and other unexploded devices across Chernihiv.
Yaroslav, the unit commander, tells Byline Times that the work is painstakingly slow. The brigade has been operating across several fields for the past year.
Yaroslav, who cannot provide his surname for security reasons, explains that before de-mining begins, non-technical surveillance is carried out to define the “complexity” of the work required, and what has been left behind. Locals are spoken with, and drones, maps and GPS are used to define “territories that potentially have mines”.
Yaroslav won’t say how many mines his unit has cleared, but reveals that much of the ordnance they have detected isn’t modern.
“Mainly it’s mines of Soviet production,” he says, revealing that Russia’s Army still deploys old weapons made during Russia’s-then Soviet Union empire that collapsed in 1991.
These devices include anti-vehicle mines such as the TM-62, according to Halo Trust, an international de-mining NGO.
The ‘Butterfly’ Mine Is No Toy
Another mine commonly found is informally called the “butterfly” – on account of it looking like it has two wings – but is officially known as a PFM-1. Despite its moniker, the device is deadly.
The mine, which can be scattered by aircraft or rocket artillery, carries 37g of explosives — more than enough to maim and kill – but at just 14cm wide and 5cm long, they look harmless to kids, with many mistaking them for toys.
“Children bring devices home and they explode,” said 756 sapper brigade member Yevgeniy, adding that others lose arms and legs, and many suffer other life-changing injuries.
Some 523 civilians have been killed by landmines or other unexploded ordnance across Ukraine since February 2022, according to figures provided to Byline Times by HALO Trust, which has been operating in Ukraine since 2015.
The figures also show that 1,235 people have been injured by the exploding devices that include anti-personnel mines to rockets and grenades.
Unexploded Mines Can Launch 1m to 1.5m Into the Air
Walking through the field, boots crunching on dry earth in an already cleared area, Yevgeniy explains that he works in logistics for the 756 brigade but hopes to one day de-mine. He has been training during the past year and will soon qualify.
Before the war, Yevgeniy worked in accountancy, but quit his day job to defend his country. “When the big war started, many people felt that they need to do something to help withstand this,” he says.
We reach, Alexander, one of the sapper unit members, scanning the ground with a metal detector.
Should he disturb a mine, the devices can launch 1m to 1.5m into the air – around the height of the upper body – and explode, tearing apart flesh as it sprays metal fragments.
One such mine found in Ukraine is the OZM-72 anti-personnel mine, according to Human Rights Watch.
The devices, which are prohibited under an international Mine Ban Treaty, are typically painted olive green for camouflage and set off with a trip wire. When detonated, the 11lb Soviet-manufactured mine explodes upward, releasing more than 2,400 steel fragments.
Yaroslav refuses to say if any of his unit’s de-miners have been killed or maimed. Despite the obvious dangers, 36-year-old Alexander doesn’t seem phased.
“I have a family – a wife, a kid – and of course they are worried,” he says, lifting his goggles from his eyes, the black metal detector clutched in his right hand. “But I am okay doing this,” he laughs, adding that he has been de-mining for almost a year. “I am doing good work here to improve the life of the civilians in the area.”
The Impact on the Economy
Planting mines is a cowardly act, with the devices often exploding up to decades after a war has ended, leaving civilian casualties mounting.
Ukraine has also deployed the devices to hold back Russia’s forces from advancing. Ukrainian troops used rocket-fired anti-personnel mines while attacking Russian forces occupying the eastern city of Izium, in Kharkiv Oblast, in 2022, according to Human Rights Watch.
Kyiv later told the NGO that it could not comment on the types of weapons it is using until the war is over and its occupied areas liberated.
For now, the work continues, with urgency, for the 756 brigade in the field in Chernihiv Oblast.
“When the grass grows longer it becomes harder to clear,” Yevgeniy says. “It slows our work and (the farmers) cannot use the land for agriculture.”
The faster Ukraine can rid its fertile rural areas of mines that hamper farming, the better for Kyiv to stave off a looming economic crisis.
In 2021, agriculture represented 41% of Ukraine’s exports, up from 27% in 2013, according to EU figures. By the end of 2023 – some 21 months after Russia’s full-scale invasion – the country’s agricultural sector had sustained an estimated $80 billion in damages and losses.
Removing the unexploded ordnance, the World Bank estimates, will cost around $37.6 billion.
An Ambulance and Medic Are On Standby
De-miner Alexander slips his goggles back on and returns to work, as Yevgeniy explains what happens if an unexploded ordnance is detected.
“Firstly, the de-miner, he marks the place with the appropriate sign, he makes a decision that either this can be safely taken, or destroyed on the place (site), on location,” he says. If a potential device can be exploded on site, it is carefully removed to an area by the field to be neutralised.
We wander away to see the remnants of previously exploded ordnance, careful to tread only in areas already de-mined. An ambulance and combat medic are on standby.
Yevgeniy opens a wooden box showing four rusted shells that he says are from the Soviet Union’s army, from the era when Nazi Germany and the Russians fought in the Second World War in this stretch of the Eastern Front in what is now modern day Ukraine.
“Basically last month we found artillery, unexploded, from the Second World War, and a helmet with holes,” Yevgeniy says. “The artillery will not explode by itself but it is still dangerous.”
The unexploded ordnance that dates back to the Second World War is usually buried deeper in the ground than the artillery left over from Russia’s occupation in 2022, and the 756 brigade deploys even more specialist metal detectors for this work – magnetometers.
Kyiv’s Western allies, including the US and the UK, have provided billions of dollars of military aid to Ukraine – but aid from private sources for non-lethal donations also plays a part.
Volunteer aid worker Charles Ray, from Atlanta, Georgia, is one of those who helps out. In December, he delivered six magnetometers to the brigade, worth $90,000.
Ray, who sources the funds and finances his own trips to Ukraine, says the devices were donated by an environmental testing company in the US. The company declined to be named.
“As an American, I believe in this fight,” says Ray, a private investigator. “The Ukrainian people are literally fighting for their freedom and that’s something all Americans should support.”
The older mines are taken offsite – about half an hour’s drive away – for detonation.
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In the rural area where fields stretch out in the distance, insects chirping, we walk along pale yellow earth, criss-crossed with tyre track grips. Yevgeniy leads the way to a crater that is about 10 metres deep and 20 metres wide. It is here where the brigade carefully places the ordnance.
“They cover it with sand and then explode it,” he explains.
Yevgeniy casts a cold eye over already neutralised devices scattered around including shells, rockets and even cluster bombs in a graveyard of metal that will continue to grow, long after Russia’s invasion ends.
“I believe this work will continue for years,” Yevgeniy says. “This is important work to help Ukraine into the future for when the war is finished.”